We surveyed and interviewed companies across North America and Europe, from solopreneurs to global mid-market firms. Our goal was to uncover how companies protect sensitive video content. This research summary offers key insights for businesses needing to safeguard private, gated, or confidential videos from unauthorized access.
We explore six real-world use cases showing how companies use login protection to secure valuable video content while delivering seamless customer experiences.
Whether for monetization or high-level security, these insights will help protect your content and strengthen your video strategy.
Use Case One: How Professional Services Firms Empower Clients Through Secure Access to Education
Ray Spence, a senior consultant with Decision Frameworks, knows that continued training and use of their decision-making software helps his clients throughout their careers.
“Our training helps clients not just use the software but also think differently and solve problems in a new way.”
— Ray Spence, Senior Consultant, Decision Frameworks
Decision Frameworks bundles its annual software license with consulting and training services upon the commencement of an engagement. After a year of access, the software license becomes available for renewal.
The B2B software industry generally sees a 90 to 95% software renewal rate, vital for sustained growth.
In a proactive approach to maximize software renewal and provide value to their clients, Decision Frameworks looked to educational video content.
Using Secure Video Hosting for Client Support
Spence led a client support and educational initiative to create videos bundled with their software license agreement. The videos demonstrate how to use the company’s software and reinforce the value of the decision-making methodology.
“The videos are one of the tools we can use to maintain communication with our clients throughout the year.”
— Ray Spence, Senior Consultant, Decision Frameworks
Spence and team upload the videos with login protection and permission controls to manage access and reduce the risk of competitors accessing their video training and software demonstrations. Every software user gets unique login credentials to access the main tutorial videos. Their approach to security is a huge step up from generic passwords or randomized links without requiring extensive additional privacy investments.
Reducing client friction is an essential part of Decision Frameworks’ ethos. SproutVideo’s login protection features make it easier for clients to view content without creating an account.
“We wanted to avoid being in a situation where our clients had to register and create an account to access the videos. That’s too much of a burden.”
— Ray Spence, Senior Consultant, Decision Frameworks
Login protection for each viewer also means the Decision Frameworks consultants can view individual viewer data. This provides concise insights unavailable when multiple users log in using the same credentials. The difference is critical for personalizing calls with clients. For example, accessing individual viewer video engagement metrics helps consultants identify sticking points and tailor consulting calls.
“This granular insight is crucial for tailoring support and improving the overall effectiveness of our training, as it allows us to see how each user interacts with the videos, including which sections they find most valuable or challenging.”
— Ray Spence, Senior Consultant, Decision Frameworks
Use Case Two: How Media Companies Enable Secure and Flexible Video Sharing
How do media companies, filmmakers, and producers securely share pre-release content for review with various stakeholders?
One solution comes from Dutch documentary and commercial filmmaker Manfred Poppenk. He uses login protection to protect and share his pre-release video content with select stakeholders, such as directors, producers, and sponsors. His workflow demands quick, secure, and easy access to content to ensure an efficient editing process.
Protecting and Managing the Distribution of Pre-Release Content
Poppenk’s primary workflow is to set up login protection with unique passwords for each stakeholder and share a link so they can see only their assigned videos. This feature is crucial because it lets him control who can access the video. He also applies additional security controls depending on the scenario. For example, he may enable downloads for some clients and disable them for others.
“With login protection, I can allow many people to view the same video with multiple permissions.”
— Manfred Poppenk, Filmmaker
Poppenk created a branded video website with a login screen, email capture forms, and easy access to his videos. The back end, visible only to him, ensures simple video organization, access controls, analytics, and management.
Using video analytics, Poppenk tracks viewer engagement, including which sections are rewatched, how much of the video is viewed, and how often it’s played. These insights help him optimize content and monitor for unauthorized activity. The insights also help Poppenk cut 30% off the time it takes to finish the editorial review.
“I can see how many times a certain bit of the video has been rewatched, suggesting that section has an issue. Or, if a client stops watching once the credits start rolling, I can point out that they missed a funny blooper. So there will be no surprises for the client, which saves me time later on.”
— Manfred Poppenk, Filmmaker
Use Case Three: How Financial Services Simplify Executive-Level Pre-Sales with Video
Simplicity Keystone offers an executive benefit solution, particularly retirement planning, for highly compensated executives within nonprofit organizations (e.g., hospitals and credit unions).
Simplicity Keystone financial advisors present their benefits program to executives during open enrollment events. Before presenting, they run campaigns to distribute video material designed to pre-educate the executives on complex financial solutions. Then, after the presentation, they hold one-on-one meetings with interested executives.
The challenge is making it easy for executives to consume the pre-meeting video content. It’s a challenge worth solving because executives who understand Keystone’s unique benefits are more likely to elect their packages during one-on-one meetings with an advisor.
Another challenge is to protect highly confidential video content from unauthorized access.
“Our biggest concern is that our content and concept might end up in the hands of a competitor. We can’t guarantee someone won’t do that, so our best protection is to keep key pieces of our IP login protected. Our process is to create credentials for potential clients via a unique email and password.”
— Michael Falkenstein, Partner, Simplicity Group
An Efficient and Secure Video Production and Distribution Workflow
Simplicity Keystone produces short, modular videos to communicate solutions and pre-educate executives. The videos typically total around 12 minutes across multiple segments and help advisors avoid repeatedly having the same discussions, freeing time for personalized discussion.
“If we can avoid engaging in repetitive presentations by simply putting it into a video, it frees up our advisors and sales staff to focus on the things we do really well.”
— Michael Falkenstein, Partner, Simplicity Group
Keystone customizes a video landing page for clients, tagging and organizing videos for easy navigation. They enhance security with login protection, IP tracking, and view count limits.
Simplicity Keystone sends marketing emails during open enrollment to encourage one-on-one meetings with advisors. Those who schedule receive pre-education video access 48 hours before the meeting. Advisors meet individually with attendees after presenting at enrollment events, using video engagement data to tailor discussions. For example, repeated views of certain sections indicate areas of interest or confusion. Analytics also helps detect unauthorized activity.
“We’ve seen a 15-20% improvement in close rates by sharing the pre-meeting video content with executives.”
— Michael Falkenstein, Partner, Simplicity Group
Use Case Four: Continuing Education and Certification in the Building Industry
Commercial and residential building codes protect people and property from structural instability, fire risk, and other dangerous conditions. Building codes are constantly changing and developing to account for new materials, construction techniques, technology, and climate change. Bob Shaw, a consulting engineer, started Steel Structures in 1990 to provide consulting and training to professional inspectors within the steel building industry.
His clients often include inspectors who travel to a job site. Many of them require continuing education to renew their certifications in steel construction. His classes focus on the best technical practices and code requirements for steel construction work.
“In the early days, I traveled extensively, carrying carousels and slide projectors for seminars at various hotels, hoping for attendee turnout. Over time, as technology evolved, I transitioned to using digital projectors and a laptop, but found the travel exhausting.”
— Bob Shaw, Jr., PE, President of the Steel Structures Technology Center, Inc.
A Pivot to Online Video Training for Continuing Education and Certification
Shaw shifted to live online training to reduce time on the road and eventually moved to recorded content. That’s when he discovered SproutVideo’s secure hosting platform to protect his video content. He began offering recorded sessions online, the same style and content as a live seminar.
“Our videos give the feeling of a live performance with storytelling and technical knowledge sharing.”
— Bob Shaw, Jr., PE, President of the Steel Structures Technology Center, Inc.
Shaw hosts his fee-based classes with SproutVideo and archives them for easy customer access. Shaw manages the course selection and online ordering through the Steel Structures website. When a student registers for an online order, Shaw matches the registration email with a unique video login password for secure access. The password applies to each seminar purchased. Students receive a confirmation email with the password credentials and a link to the courses hosted on SproutVideo.
“We’ve provided around 17,000 hours of training since beginning our online seminars. All of that without leaving the office or incurring travel or meeting room expenses. Just the cost of SproutVideo.”
— Bob Shaw, Jr., PE, President of the Steel Structures Technology Center, Inc.
Students must earn a 70% score or better to pass. When a student does not pass, Shaw leverages individual user video analytics to validate if a student has watched all of the videos or rewatches particular sections of a video. Steel Structures issues a certificate of completion only when they have passed the exam.
“For students that struggle, we can check to see if they watched the videos or attempted taking the exam without viewing all of the training materials. We can also check to see if a student gets stuck on a specific question.”
— Bob Shaw, Jr., PE, President of the Steel Structures Technology Center, Inc.
Use Case 5: How a Research Institute Scales Its Global Reach Through Protected Video Content
Before COVID, Schothorst Feed Research (SFR), a specialized research institute in the Netherlands, conducted in-person client training. Their customers historically paid for this training content as part of their consultancy hours agreement. With restricted travel during the pandemic, streaming webinars became a primary way to deliver knowledge and consultancy, which SFR clients use throughout the year.
“A big advantage of the COVID period was realizing that we could reach the world now instead of only our Dutch customers.”
— Karin van de Belt, L&D Product Manager, SFR
Today, FSR records weekly webinars and invites clients to register. Twenty to thirty unique companies attend each session. The sessions are archived, and over 500 videos are now available for private viewing.
SFR customers receive a set number of consultancy hours each year. With video, SFR can provide industry knowledge in formats beyond direct consultancy. For example, one consultancy hour is applied to a one-hour video webinar.
Clients appreciate the convenience and replayability video offers. They also value the ability to apply unused consultancy hours to engaging with video webinars.
Securely Scaling Video Content Engagement
SFR considered using YouTube to host and share its video content, but protecting it from unauthorized views was essential. According to Karin van de Belt, a Product Manager in Learning & Development for SFR, YouTube’s private video-sharing option was insufficient to restrict access.
“YouTube is nice if you want to share things with the whole world and collect likes from people. But that was not our purpose.”
— Karin van de Belt, L&D Product Manager, SFR
To protect their proprietary video content from unauthorized access, they share their webinars securely using login protection and restrict the number of views to prevent widespread distribution.
“Since our content is part of our consultancy model, protecting the videos ensures that only paying customers can view them. We’ve found that it’s essential to protect the content behind a login.”
— Karin van de Belt, L&D Product Manager, SFR
SFR improved efficiency and reduced costs by replacing in-person training with recorded webinars, eliminating travel and repeated sessions. The video program also expanded its market, allowing secure, gated video content to reach customers globally.
“The return on investment for building our video training content has been quick and significant. Our main benefit has been increased customer satisfaction due to our online services. The percentage of used consultancy hours has increased from 75% to 93%.”
— Karin van de Belt, L&D Product Manager, SFR
Use Case Six: How a Private Equity Firm Shares Highly Confidential Financials with Investors
One of SproutVideo’s customers, a private equity (PE) firm, records its annual general meeting with investors. Their goal is to archive and share the private meeting for investors unable to attend. Like most financial institutions, it operates within a regulated environment. As such, it has a fiduciary responsibility and must comply with regulations, including how to store and share sensitive financial video data.
If confidential financials are leaked, a company has much to lose. These losses include customer trust, confidential IP and proprietary business strategies, and competitive advantage.
“When confidential financial information is disseminated to unintended recipients, it slips from our control, potentially leading to negligence. We have a fiduciary duty to protect financials included in our private video content.”
— Customer, IT Manager, PE Firm
Our customer, the IT Manager for the PE firm, wears many hats, but his primary focus is to implement secure, reliable, and accessible technology solutions, with an increasing emphasis on security. He also establishes minimum security standards and best practices to share with portfolio companies.
Implementing Access Management to Protect Video Content
The PE firm needed to restrict access to its recorded annual general meetings and limit authorized viewers’ ability to share access credentials. To that end, they enabled access management features in their SproutVideo security settings, including:
- Login protection
- Limitations on the number of views per login
- Viewing date range settings.
This level of security helps the PE firm ensure that only authorized viewers can access the videos, protecting their sensitive financial data.
Although only used in one-off situations, the PE firm uses viewer analytics to track and confirm authorized video content access and detect potential violations.
“With login protection, we provide a username and password, and only the person with that credential can log in and access the video. We could then limit access by a stated view count and date range. So if they hadn’t watched the video within a certain time, it would expire, and they’d have to request additional access.”
— Customer, IT Manager, PE Firm
Conclusion
We hope you found value in these six use cases for video login protection. Businesses across industries, from tech startups to financial firms, easily protect video content by leveraging the video security solutions discussed.
The study also offers tips for using video management tools to organize, present, share, and analyze video content in a secure, branded environment—from webinars to media projects.
Businesses can optimize their content strategy and stakeholder interactions by tracking key engagement metrics such as repeated views, sections viewed, and downloads. Continuous access monitoring further enhances control and security, ensuring only authorized viewers have access.
To learn more about video security, creating custom video websites, and viewer engagement insights, try SproutVideo for a free 30-day trial. No credit card is required, and there are no strings attached.
